The Fall of the Earth Kingdom
by Anaroriel
Summary: Kataang! Just because the war is over, doesn't mean peace will reign.
1. Chapter 1

Aang slammed his palm against the stone table. He glared down at his hand, the arrows bright blue against his light complexion, for betraying his feelings. He hadn't meant to show his frustration to the Earth King, but King Kuei was being completely irrational.

Aang had thought that once the king had gone out on his own and experienced the world for himself he would gain some common sense. That was how he, Katara and Sokka grew up so fast. But the awkward, bespectacled young man seemed immune to maturity and logic, and he reclaimed his crown a more ridiculous and sillier adult. His bear, Basco, was more sensible than Kuei was.

It had been a year since the Fire Lord had been defeated, and since that time the wreck that used to be known as the great, impenetrable city of Ba Sing Se had yet to regain any stability, much less improve over the old system. Aang, Katara and Sokka had been busy with peace negotiations between the Northern Water Tribe and the Fire Nation, but Toph insisted that Aang come to Ba Sing Se immediately because of an emergency. And it was.

"Your people are still living in poverty, some are even starving to death and still trying to raise money to rebuild their homes after the war," Aang said stiffly.

The king avoided Aang's gaze, and instead studied the room around them. Aang and his friends, Toph, Katara and Sokka, had requested a private room, opposed to the open air throne room so they could have some semblance of privacy. The king looked uncomfortable in this new atmosphere, and he showed it by squirming in his plain chair and studying the unadorned walls.

"Yeah," Toph, a blind young girl sitting on Aang's left side added. Despite her youth and small size, she was well known as a great earthbending master. "You're not even helping supply or fund them. And now you want to throw a huge parade for the weird nothing-bear's birthday?"

Kuei frowned. "Now, that's not true. His name is Basco. And I am supplying and rebuilding my army. If they wanted to help rebuild the city and make money, they should join my military. Besides, that's what Long Feng used to do, didn't he? He just gave away homes and food to refugees, and then Ba Sing Se fell to the Fire Nation."

Aang took a deep meditation breath. "Okay, I see where you're going with this. But there's this thing called… oh, what's it called?" He turned to the beautiful sixteen year old Water Tribe girl sitting on his other side.

"Moderation?" Katara supplied. Sokka, her brother and the final and fifth person in the meeting room apart from the king's guards, nodded eagerly, as if he himself had come up with the word.

"Moderation, that's it. There's this thing called moderation."

"Moderation?" The king looked baffled.

"You know," Sokka said, and leaned his tan forearms on his thighs comfortably. "Don't put all your seaprunes in one pot?" The king still looked confused. "Spread your dogwhale blubber evenly over the entire biscuit?"

"To get to the point, your majesty," Katara cut in. "There are rumors in the city that the people are going to start an uprising. You need to fix things before those rumors become a reality."

"An uprising!" The king looked at Basco for guidance, and the echo of Sokka's slap against his forehead resonated throughout the stone chamber. 'How do you know this? You just arrived!"

Katara pursed her lips. Aang wasn't the only one who was having trouble keeping his anger in check. "Toph has been acting as your intelligence in the city, remember? People are unhappy with what's going on."

"Unhappy isn't even the start of it, Sweetness." Toph turned her pale green eyes back towards the king and felt satisfied when the king trembled beneath her blind stare. Unnerving people was one of her favorite tricks. "People, well, two people in particular, are calling for a new government. A Republic. And you know what that means, highness." She grinned like a cat. "You're going to get sacked."

"Toph," Katara scolded.

"It's the truth."

Katara rolled her blue eyes. "Aang?"

"You have to cancel the parade and put that money towards rebuilding and feeding your people," Aang summed up. "If you don't, they're not going to like it."

The king looked troubled. "I'm afraid it's too late."

"What?" all four of them cried.

"The parade's already been paid for. I can't take back the money." He frowned and petted his pet bear. "But the people will be encouraged by a celebration, right?" He didn't seem to notice the disbelieving and devastated young faces before him.

"This can't be happening," Aang whispered to Katara.

"Kind of makes you miss brain-washing, controlling Long Feng, doesn't it?" Sokka muttered.

"I think we're all done here today," Kuei said. "I have some last minute changes to make to the parade tomorrow." He stood up and padded away, the bear at his heels.

Aang stood up and turned towards his friends. "What am I supposed to do?" He rubbed a line along the arrow running from his forehead to the back of his neck. "This isn't like Ozai, I just can't fight him."

"You could." Sokka stood up and adjusted his oversized green Earth Kingdom robes. "Just do that glow-glow pow-pow Avatar thing you do so well. Who wouldn't listen to you after that?"

"That's not the best way to go about it, Sokka," Katara said crossly.

"I'm just throwing ideas out there, which is more than you're doing," Sokka retorted.

"Oh, like your idea was – "

"Could we not fight, please?" Aang interrupted. He tiredly rubbed his head again.

"Well," Toph said. "You could just support the rebels."

"What?"

"I'm serious. They're not bad guys. They just want a voice for the people, and you know they can't be worse than what they have now."

"You're telling me that the guys who want to overthrow the government and become traitors to their country are not bad guys?" Aang could not believe what he was hearing.

Toph focused her energy on a small ball of stone she had been morphing into animals under the table during the meeting. It shifted into a turtleduck, then a dogwhale, and finally morphed into a plain nothing-bear. "Listen, you should hear them talk sometime. They just want what's best for the Earth Kingdom. Their names are Cheng and Chenlu, brother and sister twins."

"Maybe that's a good idea, Aang," Katara suggested. "Maybe we should talk to– "

A giant explosion rocked the palace. Sokka fell on Toph, and Aang grabbed Katara's arm to steady himself. "What was that?"

"Avatar Aang!" A panicked-looking guard appeared the door. "Avatar Aang, you must come quickly. Rebel forces are attacking the palace."

Aang turned wide gray eyes to his friends. Without a word, he gestured for them to follow as he raced to the throne room.

"Why would they be attacking today?" Katara cried as they raced around the bend towards the throne room.

"Don't you see, Sweetness?" Toph said as she dashed expertly around corners. "Because they're expecting an attack during the parade tomorrow in the city. The rebels must know that the guards and military are busy preparing the city for security and not worrying about the palace today."

They found the king cowering at his throne and hugging his bear close to him. A dozen guards and some official looking men in the green military jackets were conferring together in the corner.

"What do we do?" the king asked.

If there was one thing Aang sadly knew how to do, it was fight. "Sokka? What do you think?"

Sokka's normally tanned skin turned white. "Uh." He blanched further when Katara stared at him. "What? I've never actually planned defense before! Much less on the spot like this!"

"Okay then." Aang looked around the room. "I'm going to fly around the palace and figure out what's going on. Sokka, uh, think of a plan while I'm gone."

"Right." The color returned back to his face, and he turned to the generals and began interrogating them about troop numbers.

Aang knocked his staff against the ground, freeing the wings. Without one glance around the throne room, he ran out on to the balcony and took to the skies.

A good three minutes later, Aang swooped back onto the balcony. "There are two main groups attacking the palace. One on the east side and the other on the north side. They've set up a burning trench to block the military out in the city, and it seems to be working. We only have the guards to protect us, and the force on the east side looks like it already got into the palace."

"That's worse than I thought," General Rongji admitted.

"All right," Sokka muttered as he studied a palace map. "First of all we need to get the king out of here."

"No."

Startled, the gaang and the officers looked up at the king. He stood up, firm and straight, and studied the group with a lofty expression. "I am not leaving. I will not be chased from my rightful throne a second time. I am staying here."

"Um, your majesty?" Sokka said carefully. "That's noble of you and all, but I don't think they're going to want to sit down for a cup of tea and a chat when they get here."

"I'm with Sokka on this one, you need to get out of here," Aang agreed.

But despite everyone's firm conviction, the king refused to budge.

"Fine," Katara finally snapped. "We're wasting time."

"All right then, plan B. Katara and Aang, you stay here and guard the king. While you're here, I want you to try and destroy the plumbing. See, if we can crack the pipes here and here," Sokka pointed at the map in front of him, "then you two can build up the pressure with your waterbending. Toph and I will go down here to redirect the plumbing to the burning blockade right here." He gestured to where the piping ended near the two gates. "General Rongji, take as many guards as you can find who aren't already there to the east and north gate and try to stop their progress. Any questions?"

"Wait, how are we supposed to guard the king and destroy the plumbing at the same time?" Katara demanded.

"Take him with you."

"I told you, Sokka, I'm not leaving. This is my rightful place," the king insisted.

Sokka crumpled the map in his hand. He turned to his sister. "Can you build the pressure from this room?"

Katara paused and reached out for the water source. "I think I can."

"Fine. Then Aang, go break the plumbing, and Toph and I will head up to the front lines. We're wasting time."

Katara ran up to Aang and flung herself into his arms. "Be careful out there, okay?" she told him before kissing him firmly.

"Of course I will." Aang bit his lip. He didn't like the idea of Katara facing an entire force by herself if they managed to break past the guards. "Listen, I want you to heat up the pipes when they reach the throne room. I'll be paying attention, so I'll come back and help you."

Katara nodded. He kissed her once more, a quick one for luck, and then followed Toph and Sokka down the servant stairwells towards the underground piping.

Aang wasn't expecting the rebel forces to be so successful so quickly. He was in the process of slicing the ten foot in diameter pipe when suddenly the metal began to steam. "Katara."

"Aang! Where are you going?" Sokka demanded when the Avatar jumped onto his glider and flew out of the underground caverns.

When he arrived, Katara was surrounded by a water octopus, trying desperately to keep the twelve people back while the king stood behind her and threw knives. He was surprisingly successful, and managed to take down two fighters before running out of knives and cowering behind his grand throne.

A man, pale and thin but with dark, intense eyes, was the first one to notice Aang's entrance as Aang rocketed three rebels out of the room with a single earthbending stomp. The man signaled something to his people, and they swarmed forward over Katara and king. Katara yelled, and several fell back and two froze solid, but the force overwhelmed her. "Let me go!"

The man, who couldn't have been more than twenty years old, now had the king and a master waterbender captive. One of his largest and strongest looking fighters had Katara, trapping her still so she couldn't waterbend, and the first man pulled the king against him as a living shield. His knife, a wickedly jagged piece of metal, pressed menacingly against Kuei's neck, and Kuei's glasses hung askew off one of his ears.

"Hello," the man said, as if they had passed on the street instead of meeting during a rebel siege. He was wearing poor quality street clothes, with a misshapen leather breastplate hanging loosely around his gaunt frame. The other fighters shared the same gaunt and hungry look. "My name is Cheng. I can only assume that you're the Avatar."

"I am," Aang answered. His eyes narrowed; he wasn't sure what game Cheng was playing. "And as Avatar, I'm asking you to let go of my friends."

Cheng smiled. "I would, if I knew exactly what was going to happen to us and my people." A look of wild desperation crossed his face. "I can't allow for this man to return to his throne. We have all lost too much while this man sits on his throne and fattens his bear while our families are homeless and starving to death!"

Aang put up his hands in a sign of peace. "I understand you," Aang said quietly. "I wish you could have come to me first, and we could have figured out a solution without violence. I'm on your side."

Cheng and his group of fighters laughed bitterly. "Our side?" Cheng said once the laughter had quieted down. "You will never be on our side, Avatar. We are not like you. We cannot bend the elements."

"That doesn't –"

Cheng ignores him. "I've heard many stories about you," he continued. "And your reputation for not killing. It's quite… admirable. Unfortunately, we do not hold such high morals as you." His hold on the king tightened, and the knife drew a drop of blood. "And yet, we do hold you in high esteem. So we're going to let you leave today, alive. And we'll even let you bring someone along with you. But only one." Cheng's eyes bore into Aang's gray ones. "So, who's it to be? The little waterbender or the king?"

Aang raised his arms to bend at them, but Cheng jerked his head and the large man hold Katara began to squeeze her throat, choking off her air.

"Don't you dare try anything, Avatar, or we'll kill them both. Make your choice," he said breathlessly. "Either the girl or the king. If you don't make the choice, I'll kill both."

Noises of a conflict echoed in the hallway. Aang and Cheng did not blink, just stared each other down. The doors splintered open and cracked the twin dog guardian statues. Hunched in the wooden deluge was Chenlu, Cheng's sister.

Against Cheng's lurid skin and mousy coloring, Chenlu was radiant and glowing with triumph. Her dark hair was cut at a slant to emphasize her lively dark and slanted eyes and full dark lips. She straightened once the dust had cleared. A red-stained handkerchief was tied around her arm and a cut on her lip was bleeding freely, but she blazed into throne room like a queen. Her victory faded when she saw Cheng and the Avatar facing-off over a choking girl and a king with a knife at his neck.

"Cheng," Chenlu said. Her weapon clattered on the ground by her feet. "What are you doing?" She took a step towards her brother, but something in his expression stopped her. Clenching her teeth together, she hissed, "Let the waterbender go. Our fight is not with the Avatar or his friends."

Cheng laughed. "You still don't understand, do you, Chenlu? The Avatar has refused to let us take power peacefully. He has sided with the king. This is the only way for us to put our home back together again. We must kill the king _and_ his supporters."

Furiously, Aang took a step forward. Cheng cocked his head again, and the large beefy man squeezed Katara harder. She struggled fruitlessly to reclaim air as unconsciousness slowly slithered over her.

"You're killing her, Avatar." His voice was soft and cold. Katara twisted to get free, but the fight oozed out of her. "What's your choice?"

Aang's control on the Avatar State ripped free. The tattoos running over his body glowed blue, and his eyes brightened into a soft light as Aang gripped the last strings of control. "Release them now," he ordered. "Trust me when I say you do not want to deal with the Avatar State."

The twins shuddered at the dissonance of a thousand voices speaking as one through the Avatar.

Chenlu rushed forward and placed herself between the Avatar and her brother. "Please, we seek no harm."

"Your naivety does not impress him, Chenlu. We do seek harm. We seek the fall of the cowardly king. And you have waited too long to announce your choice."

With a swift stab of Cheng's blade, the king of the Earth Kingdom fell. Bright blood gushed out of his throat and streamed out over two pairs of hands: those of the dying king and the betrayer who ran to him and held him as he died, Chenlu.

Blasts of wind spun the throne room into mayhem. In the corner of his mind that was still Aang, he saw Katara's body dropped to the floor as her captor escaped. Her eyes were extinguished into darkness. The fighters abandoned their leader and escaped out the door come. Aang had lost himself to the Avatar State.

Cheng, despite the screams of warning from his sister, ignored the obvious peril and did not run. The Avatar lifted Cheng out of the air. In his Avatar State, Aang seemed only aware of two things: the two bodies lying dead on the floor, the bodies of those he swore to protect. With a mindless intensity, the Avatar sliced, burned, and crushed him with all four elements until nothing remained of Cheng.

For the first time, Aang had purposefully taken the life of another.

The knowledge of that shook him out of the Avatar State. He let himself fall to the marble floors in a heap. Cheng's body bled out and soaked his clothes from the peaceful yellow to a blood red. The smell of charred flesh filled his nostrils, and his eyes drifted to the decimated body next to him.

Chenlu, still blood-drenched from holding the late king as he died, crawled over to where he lay. She sat next to him, wordlessly staring at her brother's corpse.

"Avatar Aang." She touched his arm when he did not stir. "Avatar Aang, listen to me. You must get out of here."

"I killed him." It didn't sound like his voice. It didn't sound like him.

"Avatar, my people are coming. If they find you here they might kill you." Chenlu gripped Aang's face and turned it away from Cheng. Katara's limp body came into view.

Katara," Aang gasped. He dropped his face in his hands. "Katara."

Chenlu moved away from him and bent over Katara's body. She pushed the other girl onto her back and placed two fingers against Katara's wrist.

"Get away from her!" Aang shoved Chenlu out of the way and knelt over Katara's body protectively. He knew he must have looked as primal and wild as an animal at that moment, but he didn't care. "Don't touch her!"

"I'm just trying to help! Her heart's still beating, and I can help her. Trust me when I say killing was never part of the plan." Chenlu snapped. She glanced down at her stained hands, and her body began to tremble. "He wouldn't listen to us. He was letting us die on the streets and wouldn't listen to us. But I never wanted this." The same desperation that held Cheng shadowed Chenlu's expression.

And Aang trusted her. He moved out of the way, and Chenlu knelt next to Katara's head and put her ear against Katara's lips. Frowning, Chenlu turned her head, and to Aang's surprise, kissed his girlfriend. Only, it wasn't a kiss. Chenlu blew into Katara's mouth, and pressed hard against her ribs. She repeated this multiple times, and then placed her ear against Katara's mouth again.

"Okay, she's breathing on her own now." She pressed her fingers against Katara's wrist again. "Her pulse is still weak though. You need to get her out of here and get a healer. The people are rebelling all over the city against the king's troops, and you and she are not seen as friends in Ba Sing Se. You have to leave." Chenlu's gaze drifted to where her brother lay. She bit back a sob. "Please. Please, go."

Aang stared at Chenlu, numb. "Why are you doing this?"

Aang cringed back when he saw the passion in Chenlu's dark eyes. "Because I want my people to have a voice. This country is going to become a Republic. And that's what I'll call this city, the place where it all started. Republic City."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: All right, I apologize for the random switching around of the chapters. This is the new chapter 2! Thanks for your patience!**

"Listen, Aang, I'm worried about Katara as much as you are, but you've got to let Appa rest," Sokka said. Appa's body dipped into the arctic water, drooping with exhaustion.

"Yeah, Aang," Toph said. "I haven't been able to see in three whole days! And I wouldn't mind, you know, not drowning if Appa passes out too." Toph stuck her bare feet up in the air and snuggled deeper into the blankets. To her, the freezing temperatures were the only indication that they were heading south.

"We have to get Katara to Master Pakku as quickly as possible!" Aang gripped the Appa's fur tightly as he whipped around to face his two friends in Appa's saddle seat. Appa moaned in complaint. "How can you two even think about stopping? She hasn't woken since we left Ba Sing Se."

Toph reached out a hand to the sleeping girl next to her and felt her pulse. "She's still breathing, and her heart is strong. She'll come out of this coma, Aang."

"Look, Aang," Sokka said slowly. "Why don't I drive and you lie down next to Katara. She's probably cold and we don't want her to get sick. Besides, when was the last time that you've slept?"

Aang shook his head, his eyes haunted. "That doesn't matter."

"Sure, it does, Twinkletoes," Toph said. "Sleep does a body good. And Katara does look cold."

Both boys looked over Katara. "I think that you're right, Toph," Sokka said. "She does look – hey, wait a –"

Toph shook her head subtly, shutting Sokka up.

"Well," Aang said. He rubbed his ringed eyes. "I don't want her to get sick."

"Lay down, Twinkletoes," Toph ordered. "We'll wake you before we arrive."

Aang glared at the two of them. "I'm not going to fall asleep."

"Of course," Sokka humored him.

Aang knew it was a mistake the minute he leaned back against the saddle. He held Katara against him, to warm her as he promised to do, but despite the girl's fragile state, Aang couldn't sit still. The minute he let his mind wander, it came back to the noxious smell of fresh blood, the screams of a rebel leader and the lifeless torn face of a traitor. _You owe me a life, Avatar, _Chenlu had told him. Her eyes were dead as she clutched the corpse against her. _Never forget that you owe me a life._

Aang sat up, jostling Katara. She didn't wake up. "I've got to get out of here." Aang was breathing hard. "I got to get out of here!" Aang jumped to his feet and grabbed his staff. With a harsh knock, he released the glider and with a slight yell, shot off into the air.

"Aang! Wait!"

Aang ignored his friends. He couldn't stay still, he couldn't stay there. The wind pressed against his face, freezing his tears into a glaze along his cheeks. If Katara didn't wake up –

When Aang returned, Sokka was kneeling over his sister. He was laying another sleeping bag over her, his face grim and worried. He looked like he aged ten years just studying his unmoving sister's face.

Aang landed and placed a comforting hand on Sokka's shoulder. "She'll be okay."

"You'd better be right."

Aang took his hand away. "I spotted the village from up there." Aang actually smiled when Toph whooped. "We'll be there in about fifteen minutes or so."

Aang sat next to Katara and placed a head on her forehead. Aang didn't know much about medicine or healing, but he did remember Monk Gyatso smoothing his forehead whenever Aang felt sick. Katara didn't have a fever, but she still did not wake.

"There it is," Sokka said finally as Appa finally gave one last lurch and dropped into the water. "Come on, Appa! You're so close! Yip yip!" Appa tried in vain to lift his heavy body out of the water.

"It's all right. A few more minutes won't make that much of a difference now," Aang murmured.

Someone in the village must have spotted the sky bison because a small crowd began to gather at the docks, waiting for their arrival.

When they reached the dock, the crowd burst into applause and a cheer of "the Avatar" rose. Aang didn't waste one moment. He lifted his girl into his arms and airbended them off Appa and in front of the villagers.

"Where is Master Pakku? I must see him! It's an emergency!" he yelled. The cheering stopped, replaced by an eerie murmur. A boy of the tribe waved at Aang to follow him, and the two weaved through the tents and disappeared.

"Come on, we'd better keep up." Sokka took Toph's hand and led her down Appa's head to the dock.

"Um, Toph." Sokka face dawned with horrid realization. "There's something you need to know before we get off Appa."

"Whatever it is can wait! Oh, land!" Toph took the last step off Appa and braced her bare feet against the hard surface. She stomped the ground once with her left foot, then her right. Slowly her pale eyes began to fill with deep horror. "You! You didn't say there were no rocks or earth at the South Pole! I'm completely blind here!"

Sokka bit his lip. "Oops. Sorry, Toph. Really. I guess it must have slipped my mind. But I need to find out what Master Pakku says about Katara. Come on." Sokka lifted Toph up and unceremoniously threw her over his shoulder.

"Hey!" she yelled. She kicked him in the stomach but after a grunt of pain he ignored her and raced after the Avatar.

Sokka pushed aside his family's tent flap, and entered. Toph, could feel the still mood in the tent and she fell silent as Sokka placed her back on the ground.

Master Pakku was shaking his head. "It's a wonder she's alive at all." She was lying on a raised table, silent and motionless as Master Pakku pressed water into her head and throat. Aang knelt in front of Katara, gripping her arms. "She had an incredible amount of blood and airflow cut off from her brain for extended period of time." Master Pakku sighed and pulled away from her.

"Master?" Aang asked.

Master Pakku smiled. "She will live, Aang. It might take a while for her to return to the Katara we know and love." Master Pakku pursed his lips thoughtfully. "It will take at least six weeks of rehabilitation before she's fully healed. Probably longer for her to return to her previous strength."

Master Pakku wasn't expecting the look of pure devastation on Aang's face. "Six weeks? Six _weeks_?"

"Probably closer to two months, Aang," Pakku told him bluntly.

"Aang, it's fine," Sokka said. He took a step forward to place his palm Aang's and Katara's intertwined fingers. "We'll just stay until she gets better."

Aang yanked his hand loose. "You don't understand, Sokka. You don't understand anything!"

"Oh yeah? What's not to understand?" Sokka snapped. "My sister is in a coma right now because you couldn't choose between her life and the worthless king's!"

Aang's body tensed. "_Stop it._"

"It must have been a hard decision, huh? Two months of life sucked out of her before you could even do anything to save her. You just stood by and watched her die in front of you, didn't you? Does that fit with your noble ideas of not taking a life? Huh? All powerful Avatar?"

Wind began to pick up in the tent.

"Sokka," Toph said. "Aang. Cool it. You're not helping Katara. Aang, I said cool it!"

"Get him out of here!" Master Pakku moved forward to protect Katara from the Avatar's temper.

Sokka grabbed the younger boy and shoved him out of the tent into the snow. "Snap out of it, Aang, or you'll go into the Avatar State!" Sokka yelled as the wind just grew fiercer. "I'm sorry, all right? I didn't mean it."

Gradually the wind died down around the boy kneeling in the snow. "I promised the world that I would never disappear again. No one knows yet if I survived the rebel attack on Ba Sing Se and we didn't have enough time to send word to anyone. I can't just wait six weeks and let the rumors spread that I'm dead again. And I can't abandon the Earth Kingdom. People are probably dying." His voice grew husky. "People have already died."

Master Pakku, who had been standing at the entrance of the tent, stepped forward. "Aang, I swear to you by the White Lotus that I will the greatest care of Katara. But the world needs you again. You know that."

Aang twisted around to face the great Waterbending Master. "But maybe, maybe I can take her with me! You can teach me healing over the next couple of days and then I can just continue working on her as we travel –" Even as the words were tumbling out of Aang's mouth, he knew they were unreasonable. He couldn't take a barely conscious girl with him to a warzone. She had to stay here with a healer.

"I'll stay here with her, Aang." Sokka gripped the younger boy's shoulder. "I'll take care of her and explain why you had to go. Katara will understand."

"But I need her!" His voice cracked. "I just can't leave her here!"

Toph bumped into Master Pakku before carefully stepping in the direction of Aang's voice. "Aang," Toph said after she ran into him. "Aang, I know I'm not good at this kind of thing, but here's the deal. The world needs you right now, more than Katara does. Now I know this is hard." Toph reached her hand out blindly before placing it against his neck. "But it'll be okay. We know you can do it. Besides, I'm coming with you."

"Thanks, Toph," Aang said, but his heart wasn't in it. After a moment he stood up and walked back inside the tent. He brushed a curl out of the sleeping girl's face.

"I'll be back within two months," he whispered. It was a promise he couldn't keep.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Based on the lovely Lady_Silvamord, I made a few changes in this chapter. **

"Katara. Katara, wake up!" Sokka shook his sister awake.

Katara could tell by the somewhat gentle way he touched her shoulder that this was no emergency. She rolled over in her sleeping bag, shivering slightly against the early arctic temperature. "Sokka, it's too early."

"Trust me, Katara, you'll thank me for this."

Katara was not in the mood for any surprises. She was tired and sleepless from nightmares and haunting daydreams, her eyes lined with exhaustion. She lifted her arms and then flattened her palms down against the air, waterbending the ice under Sokka's feet into a foot deep hole of slush. Sokka yelped when his boots sank into the thick mush, and he toppled over on top of her sleeping bag.

"Katara!" He yanked one boot out and slush catapulted across the tent. It hit one of the pots with a sound like a tambourine and then dribbled down onto the fur of a white bear-seal. Sokka regarded her unhappily. "Fine then, stay here." His foot came loose from his fur-lined boot, and Sokka leaned over to fish his sock and remaining boot out of the hole. "I'll just have you know that Aang's here, and he –"

"Aang?" Katara flung her sleeping bag away from her. She ignored the all too understanding look her brother gave her, and wrestled her cold toes into her own set of boots.

"Yep. He arrived just this morning."

Katara's hands were shaking as she pushed open the blue flap of the tent. Before her everything looked normal; streams of smoke like tendrils of sea weed were floating out of the nearby igloos and tents, the ice wall she and Master Pakku had worked hard to make strong and stable roped around the entire village, and blue-coated children and women were already up and hard at work, gathering materials for the day's cooking and chores. Everything was in place, except for the strange furry presence of a sky bison.

Sokka's hand gripped her shoulder protectively. The two Water tribe siblings had not seen the Avatar since the death of the Earth King. Katara had been so hurt, the fragile tendons, nerves and veins in her throat badly crushed in the final battle led by the twin rebels Cheng and Chenlu, that Aang had brought her all the way back to the Southern Water Tribe to be seen by the great Master Pakku. He had healed her, but it took far longer than the Avatar could stay, and Aang had gone off to what was beginning to look like the start of another war.

"What is he doing here?" Katara's voice was barely audible over the strong winds.

Sokka rolled his eyes. "He's here to see me, of course. I could tell Aang has missed my sarcasm tons." When Katara said nothing, Sokka squeezed her shoulder. "Why do you think? It's been six months, the last time I checked you two were uh, romantically involved," Sokka gulped awkwardly over the phrase, "and he's probably come to see if you survived being nearly choked to death. He missed you, Katara."

"But, Sokka, because of me, the Earth Kingdom fell, and the King was killed. How could he – "

"Okay, we've talked about this," Sokka said. "It wasn't your fault, you know that. There was nothing you could have done."

"Sokka, I failed! I failed those people! I failed Aang!"

Katara remembered the first day she woke up from her coma. It had been cold and dark, with a lamp glowing next to her and casting strange shaped shadows around the tent. She recognized the place, her home and her family tent.

"Where's Aang?" she had asked repeatedly.

"He'll be back soon," was the set answer from everyone.

Katara wasn't sure when exactly it dawned on her "he'll be back soon" didn't mean what she thought it meant. Her first few days of wakefulness and deep periods of sleep were filled with "he'll be back soon" and she assumed the phrase was referring to Aang's return from talking with her father, or sleeping, or eating, or even taking Appa out for a morning flight. But slowly, and ever so painfully she realized that by saying "he'll be back soon", people were avoiding the issue. They were avoiding telling her that Aang had left her in the South Pole and taken his leave of the entire continent, and "back soon" was a highly relative, and in this case, meaningless phrase. Aang had trusted her to keep King Kuei alive and help him protect the people they swore to protect, and Katara had failed on both accounts. She didn't blame him for leaving. Katara didn't want to face herself and her failure either.

But it now seemed like Aang was ready to do both.

Sokka didn't respond to Katara's outburst; instead he rotated her by the shoulders towards the main gate. There, across the snowy clearing of the community bonfire was a figure in yellow with a blue arrow tattooed on his forehead.

Their eyes seemed to lock across the distance. Katara felt like she couldn't breathe in those moments, and she was afraid. But even from afar, Katara could see the huge smile breaking out across his face.

It was a smile she could never resist and could never stop loving. Unconsciously Katara's feet moved a few steps toward him before a wave of shyness and uncertainty washed over her. Aang didn't seem to notice her hesitation. He jumped up on his trademark spinning ball of air and sped towards her.

He looked like he had finally grown into his ears. His baby fat had absorbed into a male defined jaw line, and his features had sharpened since the last time she saw him. Crouched over his air ball, he almost looked comical; all arms and legs at fifteen, more like an awkward mouse-frog than all powerful avatar.

He grabbed her around the waist and swung her around in a flurry of dark hair, water blue and air yellow. He was laughing, his eyes shining, and he didn't let her go even when he dissipated the air ball and lowered both of them onto their feet.

The crunch of snow beneath her seemed to wake Katara up from her dreamlike reality. She tumbled back, bowing deeply before him. "We are honored by your visit to our humble village, Avatar," she said. Sokka made a sound like he was choking on his tongue. Tears began to well up in her eyes. "If there is anything –" She couldn't finish. She couldn't stand there, her honor in shambles from her failure, and address the man who would have to pick of the pieces of her defeat. With tears burning her cheeks, she bowed again and hurried away.

"Katara! Katara, wait!" Aang called. She could hear him riding the wind after her. His fingers clutched at her wrist. "Katara, please! Talk to me."

It was the slight catch of his voice that completely destroyed her stubbornness. With a sob, she fell against him, and cried for what seemed like the first time in months. He led her into his borrowed tent, holding her against him as she blubbered miserably. She knew she wasn't making any sense but she was beyond caring. She was able to touch him again. The moment she realized this, she knew she didn't deserve his touch, and she shuffled away from him and hugged her knees to herself on a bear-seal's pelt.

Aang's mouth was slightly ajar. "What is wrong with you?" he blurted before slapping his hand over his mouth. "I mean, uh, why are you acting like this?"

"Aang, don't you remember that day? The day the Earth Kingdom fell?"

Aang's face darkened. "Yeah, I remember." He turned away from her. "So you found out, huh? Who told you? Sokka? Or does everyone in the entire world know?"

"Of course everyone knows the Earth Kingdom fell, Aang." She bit her lip as tears threatened to fall again. "Fell because of me."

"What? No, it didn't. Not because of you, Katara. You were outnumbered." Aang laughed bitterly. "And don't tell me you didn't try enough. Katara, I watched you get strangled nearly to death. And I couldn't do anything. I was stuck, and then I watched you fall to the floor, and Kuei bleeding to death beside you, blood everywhere –"

Katara reached out for him then. He shrugged her away. "I _killed_ a man."

"Aang, what happened to Kuei wasn't your fault. Cheng killed him, not you."

"No." His voice turned as cold as the ice beneath them. "I killed Cheng."

The wind began to pick up outside. Katara went to the doorway to secure the tent flap, digesting the information that Aang had just told her. His pain was so much worse than hers, and she felt selfish for the way she had felt. She sat next to him and took his hand, and this time he did not shrug her away.

"I lost control of the Avatar State. I saw you and the king fall and I thought both of you were dead. And I lost control, Katara, I lost control!" He sobbed and leaned into her, and Katara climbed into his lap and held his head against her breast.

"But you've lost control of the Avatar State before, Aang," she said quietly. "It's not your fault. The Avatar State is out of your hands. You can't feel guilty for what happened."

"You don't understand. It's… it's getting worse. At least before I had some concept of me, something or someone to pull me back, but this time I was locked in it. It's getting stronger, Katara. What if I can't get back next time? What if I –"

She kissed the tears from his eyes. "Shh. I won't fail you again, Aang. I promise, from now until forever, that I will always be there to bring you back. I'm so sorry that I wasn't there."

"It's not your fault," he protested, but she shushed him again and continued kissing his dear face.

He stopped her, catching her lips with his own. The heat from his kiss warmed her down to her toes. "I've missed you so much," he said between kisses. "I needed you."

"Not as much as I missed and needed you," Katara giggled when he kissed her nose. She stared up – yes, up – at him, her eyes growing slightly sad. "And look at you now. You've changed so much."

"I have not," Aang protested. "Look." he pulled out a couple of stones out of his pocket and airbended then into a spinning circled between his palms. "See? Haven't changed."

Katara laughed and snuggled closer. "You have changed. Six months ago we couldn't do this comfortably," she teased.

"I know, it's weird. Three years ago I used to fit in your lap. We can try it again, if you like," he said wickedly. Aang tried to lift her from his lap, but Katara squealed and held on. They ended up wrestling on a sleeping bag, with Aang half-heartedly trying to pull Katara from him and Katara clinging to him and threatening to tickle him.

"All right! All right, I surrender!" Aang cried out finally. The two of them paused for breath and stared at each other, Aang's hands played with her hair loops, and Katara caressed his pale cheek.

An idea was growing inside of Katara, something that seemed to grow stronger and unyielding with every touch. She wanted him. She wanted him to be completely hers. And maybe, maybe if he became completely hers he would never have to leave her again. Her tongue stuck to the top of her suddenly dry mouth. "Aang…"

"Stay with me tonight," Aang said. His tone was flippant but his eyes were serious. "Not for anything but sleep, of course," he added when she didn't reply right away. "Please, Katara? We've been apart for two long. I want you near me."

Katara's heart began to pound. She wanted this. She wanted to love him with every part of her and he needed her too. They had been dating for about two years anyway. It was time. He could never leave her again if she belonged to him like this.

Katara stood up. She paused at the tent flap and regarded him seriously. "Yes, I want to stay with you tonight," she said. "But not for sleep." She bit back a smile when his jaw dropped.

"Wait, do you mean?"

Biting back a smile, she said, "I can see that I'm going to have to spell it out for you. You'd better get some rest, because you're not going to get any later. See you tonight, Avatar Aang." She untied the flap of the tent and sauntered away, fully aware that his eyes were on her hips. She couldn't resist bending over to pick up a broken piece of flint off the ground, and when she glanced over her shoulder, he was still staring slack jawed. Judging by his expression, Aang had understood.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hello everyone! Thanks for reading this far with me. Please take a second to review! Any concrit is loved! I really appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Thanks for your patience!  
**

"Sokka," Hakoda said when Sokka entered the overly large igloo. It had been one of Master Pakku and Katara's Southern Water Tribe renovation projects when Katara was well enough to waterbend again. Along with the huge ice structure which was now used as a government building, the two waterbenders had expanded the village and fortified a great wall.

Sokka nodded to his father moved to take a seat. Arranged in a sort of circle was his father, Bato, a few of the other men of the tribe, Master Pakku, and two girls, Katara and Suki. Sokka cricked his neck as he swung his eyes back to Suki. It was the first time he had seen her leave her tent the entire two weeks she had been here.

"Suki! You're – you're wearing three coats?" Sokka frowned as he lowered himself onto some furs.

Suki was so packed stiff with furs that she resembled Appa more than a girl. "I'm not the greatest fan of blizzards," she managed to squeeze out between blue lips. "Not that this isn't a great summer vacation, Sokka."

Bewildered, Sokka glanced out of the entryway of the igloo. "Blizzard? It's only snowing."

That observation did not seem to improve Suki's mood. "N – next time we meet, we – we're going to train on Kyoshi. And – and y-you're wearing the uniform."

"I am not wearing the dress again!"

"Ah, why?" Katara, who seemed to be eavesdropping, said. "It brings out your eyes."

Sokka didn't have time to retort; at that moment Aang came in through the entryway, brushing snow off his shoulders. Katara and Aang's eyes met, and both of them blushed deep red before glancing away.

"Nice blush, Katara," Sokka said. "It brings out your eyes."

"All right, everyone," Hakoda stood up and addressed the group. He was a powerful figure, attractive and strong for his age, and leadership emanated from his mere presence. Sokka could only hope to be half the man his father was someday. "The Avatar has arrived with some important issues to discuss. Aang?"

"Okay," Aang said. He took a deep breath. "As many of you know, the city of Ba Sing Se has fallen again, this time to a rebel group, led by a commoner woman named Chenlu." Aang raised his hand and waited for the murmuring to dispel. "Both your sister tribe and the Fire Nation are against this uprising. Not only are they executing the aristocrats and former government officials, but they're intending to expand their republic to the rest of the Earth Kingdom."

"Why do we care what the Earth Kingdom does?" asked Nuka, one of Hakoda's advisors. "Let them destroy themselves."

"We should care," Master Pakku said. His hand pulled thoughtfully at his mustache. "We care because if they are successful in overthrowing their monarchy, our people will get the same idea. Can you imagine if the Fire Nation overthrew their new Fire Lord? A lot of them supported the war under Fire Lord Ozai. What about our sister tribe in the North? What if Chief Arnook is overthrown by the peasants? No, we cannot let the Earth Kingdom peasants succeed in this, the damage and influence it would fuel would be disastrous. The world would be overtaken by anarchy."

A deep silence settled over the icy room.

"As I said, Chief Arnook and Fire Lord Zuko are against this," Aang said. "But we've run into a problem. The Northern Tribe refuses to work with the Fire Nation."

"Well, of course," Bato said. "People do not forget a hundred years of war and suffering. Even with you acting as an advocate, it is not something our sister tribe can quickly get over. It's not something we can quickly get over either."

Aang's head dropped. "I was afraid you'd say that. The current halt in negotiations is because of your tribe. It has basically come down to your decision."

"What do you mean, Aang?" Hakoda asked. "We haven't heard any of this, and now we are the ones to decide whether the Water Tribes and Fire Nation go to war against the Earth Kingdom?"

"They say it's the cost of your culture, all but one" – his eyes lingered on where Katara sat – "of the Southern Water Tribe waterbenders have been wiped out. An entire part of your culture is gone and thousands of men and women's lives lost. They say they cannot agree to any alliance because of the suffering you have endured."

Katara's hand was gripping her necklace, the last remnant of their mother who had died to protect Katara, the last waterbender of the South Pole. Tears welled up in her eyes, but did not spill over. Even after all these years and even after becoming friends with the current Fire Lord himself, Sokka knew that Katara still could not get past the death of her mother at a firebender's hands. He reached out and took her free hand, and she squeezed it and held on, as if Sokka's hand were the last anchor to her family. In some ways, it was.

"I trust Zuko," Katara said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her. "The only way for us to move on from this war is to actually move on. We can't keep nursing old wounds and grudges against each other. We have to work together to stop another war. Aang is the Avatar; if he says this is the only way, then I support his decision."

"I agree with Katara. This thing needs to be settled, and settled fast," Sokka said..

"We should send representatives to our sister tribe, to help assist in negotiations," Bato said.

"I agree. There is no reason for the Northern Tribe to make decisions on our behalf without our input," Hakoda said. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Let's break for lunch, and then we will discuss who will go as our representatives, and what the Southern Tribe wants accomplished in these negotiations."

Master Pakku smiled at Katara. "You have grown wise, my once-pupil," he said. Katara blushed and ducked her head at his praise. "Kana has made a vegetarian lunch for the Avatar. Please, invite him. We would be honored to have him."

"Of course." Katara stood up and moved to wait in line to talk to Aang, her face once again a beet-red color.

"Suki, my dear," Master Pakku said. "You must also honor us with lunch. I want to hear more about the Earth Kingdom. Perhaps your wisdom and experience can prove useful to us."

Suki grinned. "Thanks, Master Pakku! I would be greatly honored."

"Oh," Master Pakku said as he stood up. Without glancing at his step-grandson, he stuck a thumb in Sokka's direction. "You can bring him."

"Thanks," Sokka muttered. He steadied Suki's arm when she tripped over her multiple coats. "Seriously, Suki, it's not that cold."

"Speak for yourself. We're standing in an ice building, Sokka, and you don't think it's cold?"

Sokka didn't know how to respond to that one.

Lunch was an awkward event. Aang and Katara didn't talk much, only murmuring red-faced apologies when their elbows or hands brushed against each other. Suki and Master Pakku were having a spirited conversation that involved not involving him, and before long he couldn't take the lovesick sister and boyfriend and pampering from Gran Gran.

"I'm going for a walk," Sokka said.

"Us too," Aang said and pulled up Katara by her hand. "Uh, Katara, will you, uh, show me the wall?"

"Right, the wall. The wall is really interesting. See you, everyone!" she said before whisking Aang off for the private tour of the fascinating ice wall.

Sokka watched as they took off on a walk around the village. The two stopped when they were out of earshot, and they stood facing each other awkwardly. This was too much, Sokka had to know what was going on. He crept up to the couple, careful to hide behind Nuka's tent.

"Did you mean what you said?" Aang asked quietly. "This morning?"

"Of course I did. I mean, unless you don't want me to mean what I said then I won't mean what I meant –"

Aang cut her off with a kiss. "I'm glad."

Sokka rolled his eyes. This was getting boring and they weren't talking about anything.

Aang began a story about his adventures, and the two of them walked off hand-in-hand, apparently really taking a tour of the wall. Sokka watched them go. By the look of Katara's enraptured face, Aang was holding her interest with a thrilling story. He looked like he was coming to the grand climax of the tale, and in an effort to dramatize it further, Aang airbended on top of a snow drift. He vanished into the snow. Apparently the Avatar was not aware that snow drifts were neither firm nor solid.

Even from where Sokka stood he could hear Katara's laugh as Aang struggled to remove himself from the five foot deep pile. Her laughter was stifled when a huge wave of snow crashed over her. Aang was grinning unrepentantly.

What followed was probably the most intense and complicated snowball fight Sokka had ever seen. Katara raised large shields of ice around her and was shooting darts of snow while Aang dived her darts and catapulted bomb-sized snowballs over the top of her shields.

Finally Aang put up two hands in the universal sign of surrender, laughing as Katara surged forward with a giant wall of ice at her back. She dropped her weapon, and yelled like she had been betrayed when Aang waterbended a globe of ice around the two of them. Aang must have thought that the ice globe provided privacy, instead it reflected the silhouette of the two lovers kissing.

"Adorable, aren't they?" Suki said. Sokka whipped around, embarrassed to be caught watching his sister and her boyfriend.

"Oh yeah, real cute." Sokka couldn't help but send a withering glare in Aang's direction.

Suki frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. I mean, they're all lovey-dovey now, but Aang didn't have to deal with the wreck my sister turned into when he was gone for six months, and probably the wreck she'll turn into when he leaves again."

"Oh." Suki pushed her shoulder length hair into her hood and ignored it when it came loose again. "Why wouldn't he take her with him this time?"

"My father has to send his most respected and wisest advisers and ambassadors to the Northern Water Tribe, and Appa can only carry so many people. You haven't been to the Northern Water Tribe, but I'm telling you, my sister can't be one of them. They wouldn't take her seriously as a girl. Taking her would just waste space and time, and Aang has got to realize this. Katara is very capable, yeah, but not in this political scenario."

"So, then who do you think your father will pick?"

"Bato," Sokka said without a moment of hesitation. "Me, probably, as the two representatives. And Master Pakku, with his power and military experience, they're going to need him again. That's four grown men – yes, Suki, I am full grown now – on Appa. It wasn't like before when we were kids and Appa could fit a ton of us on him. Aang has got to realize this. Probably the only one who doesn't is Katara."

At that moment Aang and Katara whizzed by them, Katara laughing in protest. " – Too big to ride the penguins –" Suki and Sokka heard as Aang whisked by them on his air ball, his girlfriend in his arms.

"Poor Katara," Suki said.

Sokka watched Aang and Katara disappear over a snow hill. Indeed, he thought. Poor Katara.


	5. Chapter 5

"Okay, everyone, I hope you all had a great lunch." Hakoda said, bringing the meeting to a start. "Now what we need to discuss is who is going with Avatar Aang to the North Pole to represent us."

"I'm going," Katara said without a moment's hesitation. Aang smiled at her.

Master Pakku cleared his throat. "That is all and well, Katara, but we need some representatives too."

Katara's hackles rose. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means," he continued, "that you have forgotten our customs once again. A female representative of the Southern Water Tribe would not be accepted by my people. I'm sorry, Katara."

"He's right, Katara," Sokka said slowly. "Remember how they wouldn't even teach the girls waterbending when we were there a few years ago? I can't imagine they would take any female seriously in politics." Suki elbowed him. "Hey! I'm not saying I agree with it, I'm just laying down the facts."

"Well," Suki said. "If we're listing who's going on the trip I might as well get this out of the way and sign myself up too. I need to get back to my Kyoshi warriors. Aang said that the new rebel troops are marching towards Kyoshi Island. I need to be there."

Aang nodded gravely. "Don't worry, we'll get you back to Kyoshi Island in time."

"Thank you, Aang." Suki smiled.

"All right then, we need two representatives from our tribe. I will put in my two candidates, my right hand man, Bato, and my son, Sokka." Hakoda nodded at his son, who flushed at the honor.

"I second that," said Nuka. "With their military experiences and Sokka's familiarity with both our Sister Tribe and the Fire Nation, I cannot agree more." The other Elders murmured their consent.

"All right then, so that's me, Bato, Sokka, Suki, and Katara." Aang frowned. "A little heavy for Appa, but it shouldn't be a problem."

"Wait," Master Pakku interjected. He sounded startled. "Did I not say? I'm coming along too."

"What? You didn't say –"

"I will be needed, Aang, If you are successful in this treaty, then there isn't a moment to lose for our military to go to the Earth Kingdom. I must go too."

Aang sat down on the furs hard. "Six people? Six adult people? Along with supplies and everything until the North Pole…" Aang shook his head. "That's not going to work." Aang's gray eyes grew huge, and he and Katara's eyes met.

"No." Katara looked around her, and she was met with pitying faces. This only seemed to anger her more. "You'll need me to fight, and heal!"

"Master Pakku is more than capable of that, Katara," Hakoda said sadly. "I'm afraid –"

"Aang." Katara's eyes were pleading as they filled up with tears. "Aang, please. There's got to be another way."

"I'm sorry, Katara." He refused to meet her eyes. "You _know _Appa can't carry that amount of weight, and everyone else has a specific role to fill. But don't worry, I'll come back –"

Katara didn't wait for Aang's idea. She didn't want to hear it. With a great slice of her hand, the young waterbender exploded one of the walls and strode through the million icy shards that rained down upon her.

Aang jumped to his feet and leaped over the heads of the Elders. "Wait, Katara!"

She twisted around to face him. "I am not being left here again! I've waited here for too long, waiting for you! Do you even understand what that's done to me, Aang? Being stranded here for six months while the people I swore to protect are out there dying?"

"I know, Katara, I know." Aang held out his hands in surrender.

"No, you don't know! You don't know what it's like to wake up alone, abandoned by the one who you thought _loved _you –"

"I _do _love you," Aang snapped.

"And then banished to a place where you can't help anyone, after being evacuated from a city against your will, knowing full well by doing so you were abandoning those people to death! I had to give up, without even a choice in the matter! You don't know how that feels!"

"Fine. I don't know how that feels, are you happy now? Why don't you just blame everything that went wrong on me, and we can be done with this!"

"No." Katara's hands were shaking with fury. "We can't be done with this. You left me for six months. Six months, Aang! And now you're leaving me again, only after a few days? And you think I can just get over what happened, plus this? Why did you bother to find me when you came here? What's the point of seeing me for only a couple of days? Oh, I see," Katara continued, heat raging in her stomach so strong she felt like she was going to be sick. "Is that why you suggested I spend the night with you? So you can just sleep with me and then leave me here again for another six months? An entire year?" Katara knew she was going too far, but she couldn't seem to stop. "Is that all I am to you now, Aang? Just a nice lay before you go off on your next adventure?"

Silence. Katara looked up, suddenly aware that she had been overheard by all the Elders of her village and her family. Sokka's mouth was wide open with horror, and Hakoda's expression was not far different.

Blushing to the roots of her hair, Katara shoved his chest. "Well, you can just forget it," she hissed. "Forget everything. Forget –" Katara choked back a sob. "Forget us." She pushed him once more for good measure and then weeping, dashed off into the falling snow.

Aang dropped to his knees and his whole body crumbled into a heap. The Elders of the tribe all exchanged uncertain glances.

"I think it's time for another short break," Hakoda said. He cleared his throat. "Sokka?"

Sokka was already walking to collect the broken boy in the snow. He pulled Aang's arm around his shoulder and lifted him up. "Come on, Aang," he said. "You're not as light as you used to be, so you're going to have to give me a hand." Aang didn't respond at all, and just let Sokka drag him into the nearest tent.

Hakoda pushed the family tent flap open, and his heart broke when he saw his daughter. She was bent over, crying so hard she was nearly whimpering, her eyes red-tinged with sorrow.

"Katara," he sighed.

"What is so wrong with me?" she sobbed.

Hakoda sat down and pulled Katara against his chest. "Oh, sweetheart. You were just upset. Aang will forgive you."

"No. That's, that's not what I'm asking, Dad. What's so wrong with me that everyone I love just leaves me? First Mom, then you –"

"Katara, we've talked about this."

"Then Aang, and now even Sokka is leaving me in this wretched place."

Hakoda brushed her hair back from her face and tried to shush her.

Katara seemed to recover a little. "I just feel like I'm the one always left behind. Always."

"Katara, I'm sorry you feel this way," Hakoda said. "I really am. I hope that someday that you'll see that none of us ever chose to leave you, it was only a consequence of the right choice we had to make. But there is no room for you on that sky bison, and I'm sorry to say you'll have to stay here for a little bit longer."

"Then I'll find my own way." Katara stood up and started to collect supplies.

Hakoda reached out and took her by the wrist, forcing her to drop the sleeping bag she was rolling. "Katara," he said in his best, 'let's be reasonable' voice.

Katara's body slumped to the ground. "All right, Dad. Can you go get Gran-Gran for me?"

Hakoda nodded and left, relieved that he had been able to talk some sense into Katara. However, when Hakoda returned with Gran-Gran, he realized how wrong he was. The tent was empty.


	6. Chapter 6

The canoe rocked gently against the waves and rifts of the ocean. It took a moment for Katara to place where she was, or why she was huddled shivering against a wooden oar. A headache pounded against her temples, an emotional hangover from the overemotional drunkenness hours before.

She moaned as she rubbed her eyes, trying to recall what had transpired. As the details slowly crawled back, Katara wished she really had a bottle of rice wine to forget everything again. Katara remembered losing it in front of the council of Elders, destroying the government building that she and Pakku had worked so hard to construct, screaming at Aang and – Katara pressed a hand to her throbbing head. Did she really break up with Aang, steal her father's canoe and propel it a couple of miles towards the Earth Kingdom?

She was crazy. Stark-raving mad. Katara of the Southern Water Tribe had finally snapped, she decided. She needed to go back and beg everyone for forgiveness. How could she be so stupid?

Katara rose to her feet unsteadily and reached out to pull at the water around her. She turned around and nearly knocked the canoe over in surprise. Aang was there.

He looked like he had just recently fallen asleep, his head nodding deeper and deeper to his chest, and even in the dark twilight his brilliant blue arrow glowed slight and pointed down at himself as if saying, 'here is the answer'. Katara had the feeling the arrow was right.

He had come for her. Tears began to form in Katara's eyes as she moved forward to kneel in front of him. Gently, as to not startle him, she kissed him awake.

Aang blinked rapidly to remove the sleep from his eyes. He saw the lovely blue eyes, dark cheeks and the trademark hair loops of his beloved and he sighed. "Katara." He reached forward and pulled her against him, kissing her until she couldn't move even if she wanted.

Suddenly, Aang tensed. He pushed her away from him, he gray eyes huge and slightly horrified. "We broke up!"

Katara blushed and turned her head away. "Aang, about that –"

Aang scrambled away from her.

"Aang, stop." Katara took a deep breath. Her voice was contrite, and she crossed her arms in front of herself for comfort. "Look, about earlier. You know how much I hate admitting that I was wrong, but… I was wrong. Very wrong. It wasn't fair what I said back there. It's not your fault that I can't come with you. But I think –" Katara paused, trying to organize her thoughts. "I think I have to learn to accept that you're the Avatar, and sometimes you'll be needed where I can't go. And that hurts and frustrates me, being left behind and feeling useless."

Aang opened his mouth but Katara put a hand up. She breathed again, struggling against this realization she had to make. "I love you. I will always love you. And even though I can't expect you to forgive me, I still want and need to be with you. And –" Katara bit her lip. "And if that means waiting for you for _years,_ then I would do it. I would do it for us because I love you." Katara blushed and finally turned to meet his eyes.

Aang reached out and pulled her into his arms. Katara sighed as he held her, and the tension began to leave her body. "I love you, Katara," Aang said. "And I never want to leave you again."

Katara smiled and pressed her cheek against his warm one. "I know." She leaned back and stood up, stretching out her fingers to manipulate the water around you. "Come on, let's get back so you can go save the world again."

"Actually," Aang said, a mischievous smile playing across his lips. "I told Sokka to take Appa and meet us at Kyoshi Island. I was thinking if we dropped off Suki there, we could all fit on Appa for our trip to the North Pole. But I mean, if you don't want to go anymore –"

Aang didn't get the chance to finish before Katara was kissing him again.

"Well, enough talking," Aang said when they finally broke apart. "We've got a long way to go. We should alternate so one of us can rest and sleep while the other keeps going. I can go first."

"No, I'll go first. Sit," she ordered. Katara rolled back her sleeves briskly and then they were on their way.

The system they had only worked for two hours before both of them were too exhausted to move. They lay at the front of the boat, Katara in Aang's arms, and studied the stars.

"We call that one the Big Dipper," Aang explained as he pointed out a formation in the sky. "And that one's the Little Dipper."

"In Water Tribe lore we call those the Big Seal Bear and the Little Seal Bear. And over there, that's the scorpion-fish constellation."

"Really? That's our Lemur!" Aang laughed. "What about that one?" Aang asked, pointing out an hourglass shaped constellation with three stars across the middle.

"That's the Avatar," Katara said quietly.

"The same. I guess I really do span and connect cultures, don't I?"

"Keeper of the world and night sky," Katara teased. "We should get some rest. Goodnight, Avatar."

Aang gave her a quick kiss. "Goodnight, Forever Girl."

It only took them two and a half days to get to Kyoshi Island. Both of them were so ocean weary that they were snapping at each other until the appearance of land.

"Finally!" Katara said. "I am going to give Appa a big kiss when I see him."

"How does anyone get around without sky bison again?" Aang finished his turn and waterbended the sweat from his body, tossing it overboard. "It takes forever!"

"Come on, if we work together for this last stretch we're get there twice as fast."

Aang moaned but he moved back to the back of the boat. "You're just lazy and don't want to do it anymore."

Katara just grinned. "You ready?" she said, taking the water bending position. "And go!"

Katara was right, and before long they were stumbling out of the canoe and onto the rocky shore of Kyoshi Island. An Elephant Koi fish jumped in the distance, a splash of orange against the horizon. Aang took a step towards it, anticipation in his eyes.

"Later," she said, pulling Aang towards the village.

When they reached the bottom of the village, a girl of about twelve ran up to Aang and threw her arms around his neck. "Aangy!"

"Koko?" Aang looked taken aback by the young girl in his arms. "Wow, it's been so long!"

Katara didn't look happy. "Koko, is my brother and Suki here?"

"Yeah, they arrived yesterday. Come on, I'll take you to them!" Koko reached for Aang's hand, but then she saw Katara's face. In a quick decision of self-preservation, Koko dropped Aang's hand and skipped ahead.

Katara took the newly abandoned hand and started leading the bewildered boy up the incline of the village. "Look! They're still taking care of Kyoshi's statue!"

People from both sides of the main street began to stream out of the wooden houses that lined the way. Soon a crowd began to follow them, waving and smiling, and one guy even began foaming at the mouth before fainting.

The three of them spotted Suki and Sokka. Sokka was hopping around on one foot, unused to the custom of removing one's shoes before entering a building. He had a rolled up parchment in one hand as he struggled to take off his other boot.

"Sokka!" Katara cried and ran up to hug her brother. The two of them teetered at the slight imbalance, but managed to stay upright.

"Katara! I'm so –"

"Sokka. I know what you're going to say." Katara played with her braid. "And I want to say that I'm so sorry for all the worry that I've caused."

Sokka nodded and managed to fit his boot back on. "That's great and all, Katara, but at this point I'm just glad that you're safe, and that now we have you here for reinforcements. Look." He pressed the paper into her hands.

Katara unrolled it and skimmed. Her hand pressed against her heart. "No."

"What is it?" Aang asked as he walked up the wooden stairs. He snatched the paper from Katara as the color drained from her face.

"The Bei Fongs have been arrested by the rebels, and now they are being held for trial?" He scanned down for the details, his eyes stopping once at the central sketch of Chenlu on the page. "They managed to arrest _Toph?_"Aang crumpled the paper in his hand and threw it to the ground.

"Hey, careful with that!" Sokka picked up the paper delicately with two fingers and gently smoothed out the wrinkles. "It has Chenlu's picture on it." Sokka said with a dreamy smile.

Suki tore the paper out of Sokka's hand and smacked him over the head with it. "Anyway. It gets worse, Aang," Suki continued, looking grim. "All of the aristocrats that have gone on trial have been declared guilty."

"Well, we can bust Toph and her parents out of jail," Katara said, a determined expression blossoming on her face. "We've done it before, and we can do it again."

"I don't think you understand, Katara." Sokka placed a hand on his sister's arm. "All of those who are guilty are sentenced to death."


End file.
